Child’s passport only has 2 months on it. Flying to Spain on Saturday!

[olympicsrock]

Help!!!
Just discovered that my 10 year old son’s passport only has 2 months left on it. We have flights booked to go to Spain on Saturday. .

Has anyone travelled to Spain on this situation recently? What happened?? Were you refused permission to board the plane?
I have phoned the passport office . There is absolutely no way to get a passport for him in the next 10 days as need to do face to face for child renewal , no appointments til next week abs then a week to deliver by post.

I was in exactly this same situation end of last year. Your only option is to reschedule your holiday sorry.

Unfortunately you will be refused boarding. Am I the only one who has everyone’s passport expiry date written down and refer to it before I ever book flights anywhere? I’m always amazed at how often people find themselves caught with these things.
OP, you are where you are and I hope you get sorted.

@GinaJaffacake

Unfortunately you will be refused boarding. Am I the only one who has everyone’s passport expiry date written down and refer to it before I ever book flights anywhere? I’m always amazed at how often people find themselves caught with these things. OP, you are where you are and I hope you get sorted.

The passport hasn't expired, though. The rules have changed because of Brexit. And a lot of people don't know that.

I know the woman in question. To make up for lost time, the airline dragged a Concorde out of a hangar, and boarded all passengers on it.
Free champagne brunch was served, and the cabin crew handed out 400 lambert and butler cigarettes and 1 litre of Malibu duty free to all passengers as they arrived at their destination an hour before they were due to depart.

Brilliant @Whammyyammy! Am loving this and others’ eg @SarahAndQuack’s. increasingly shaggy dog tales

It's going back a few years but I managed to get a passport over the counter in Liverpool for DD. I had to make an appointment but once I'd presented the forms and photos, they said come back in 3 hours!

Op it's not a case of being turned away at Spain. They won't let you board at all. I hope you manage to get it sorted in time.

The changes to passport rules for UK citizens visiting ‘The EU’ *has changed due to Brexit. Typically posters can’t/ won’t acknowledge this fact. I’m pretty sure UK had a say in writing those very rules. I don’t live in the UK and even I know it.
Anyways for those who didn’t read the memo
www.gherson.com/blog/check-british-passport-before-travelling-to-eu

• except poor old us living in Ireland due to the Common Travel Area law which predated ‘The EU’ FoM laws.

@Nocutenamesleft we advise airlines and their insurers what to do when they have complaints, accidents and incidents, keep them up to date with regulations, help them buy, sell and lease aircraft, negotiate commercial agreements between different companies eg manufacturers, ground handling companies, repairers, we also advise owners and operators of business jets, helicopters, gliders, balloons, satellites on all that stuff. Pretty varied and interesting really, and also has its own special international legal regime.

You are rude.
What on earth do you think will happen?someone will tell You how to try to board illegally?
You have ruined the holiday,nobody on here has so stop with the nasty attitude.

They’ll be denied. Good luck with that attitude

[quote Foolsrule]@refusetobeasheep - don’t be ridiculous. Of course that didn’t happen. A pilot simply doesn’t have that power

Having done a stint working at Heathrow, it never ceased to amaze me how many people were - quite simply - a bit hard of thinking. So many would turn up with out of date passports, or spectacularly late as the M25 was busy (when is it quiet?). It was NEVER their fault. Except it was and the (inevitable) end result was that they missed their flights. I lost sympathy after about week three. The same old arguments and reasons and excuses EVERY SINGLE TIME. But never, ever, ever their fault. Idiots, the lot of them.[/quote]
100% this.

^

Always someone else's fault, or someTHING else's fault.

@JuergenSchwarzwald, sorry but it’s been very well publicised. Also, everyone knows that Brexit has disadvantaged us and the ease of travel. It’s everyone’s responsibility to check entry requirements before booking a holiday.

Exactly the same situation with my husband’s passport on Monday.

He was turned away at the airport, but they did offer to move his flight in case he could get a passport quickly.

@HaveringWavering What a fascinating specialty!

There are actually TWO changes that have been made to passports in recent years.
The first is that passports are now only valid for 10 years (adults), and 5 years (children).
In the past, when you renewed a passport, the weeks left on the old passport were added on to the new one. This no longer happens, and in fact some people with older passprts have been caught out, as they found the 10 years were counted from the date of issue, and this was earlier than the expiry date.
The second change is due to Brexit. Previously we were advised to have 3 months left on our passports. Now it is 6 months.
(Technically this means that passports are really valid only for 9 years and 6 months).
So if you or your children's passports expire before then, then you will need to get a new passport.
In some cases you can get them within 24 hours (check the website for renewals), or an urgent one in one week.

@milveycrohn

There are actually TWO changes that have been made to passports in recent years. The first is that passports are now only valid for 10 years (adults), and 5 years (children). In the past, when you renewed a passport, the weeks left on the old passport were added on to the new one. This no longer happens, and in fact some people with older passprts have been caught out, as they found the 10 years were counted from the date of issue, and this was earlier than the expiry date. The second change is due to Brexit. Previously we were advised to have 3 months left on our passports. Now it is 6 months. (Technically this means that passports are really valid only for 9 years and 6 months). So if you or your children's passports expire before then, then you will need to get a new passport. In some cases you can get them within 24 hours (check the website for renewals), or an urgent one in one week.

It's not 6 months for every country. Some are less. You need to check the individual country's requirements.

@milveycrohn both your points are wrong. The extra months added only affect 10 year passports as no passport can be valid for 10 years. As a child's passport is valid for under 10 years their extra months can be counted.

You also used to be able to travel up to your expiry date in Europe and now you need 3 months remaining (not 6 months)

@GinaJaffacake

Unfortunately you will be refused boarding. Am I the only one who has everyone’s passport expiry date written down and refer to it before I ever book flights anywhere? I’m always amazed at how often people find themselves caught with these things. OP, you are where you are and I hope you get sorted.

This. ^ I just don't 'get' how anyone does this. Like with many other things in the parallel world of mumsnet, I have NEVER known anyone book a holiday, and then discover they - or one of their children - will have an expired passport by the time they go. It has NEVER happened in real life to anyone I know. Why? Because people generally know the expiry dates of their family member's passports. It's basic life admin.

Like the expiration date of your driving licence, and your MOT due date etc; knowing when your passport runs out is basic life admin.

Also, Brexit has made no difference to a single soul in know in real life when it comes to travelling abroad. It's very poor form to blame Brexit when it's just poorly managed life-admin.

Spain is 6 months - a friends mother was denied boarding at the gate as she thought it was 3 months. She got an emergency passport and flew a few days later.

Says 3 months

@roselikeanyother

Spain is 6 months - a friends mother was denied boarding at the gate as she thought it was 3 months. She got an emergency passport and flew a few days later.

Spain is not 6 months.

Because people generally know the expiry dates of their family member's passports. It's basic life admin. Like the expiration date of your driving licence, and your MOT due date etc; knowing when your passport runs out is basic life admin.

I disagree knowing the expiry date of my passport, my dh's passport, my dcs' passports, dh and my driving licence is basic life admin. I agree that people should check passport expiry dates before booking airline tickets but I disagree that holding the dates in your head is 'basic life admin'.

I have lots going on in my life and I am not neurologically diverse to fixate on dates. I have a calendar which I enter reminders into which is how I organise myself and I consider myself pretty organised and juggling a lot of balls in a busy home with teenage dcs and ft work.

If you are making the ridiculously narrow point that but for the Brexit requirements, in this case the failure of op to bother to check passport expiry dates wouldn’t have been an issue, you are really really clutching at straws for reasons to blame Brexit for someone’s failure to bother checking passport dates

Its not a narrow point, many don't follow the news and believed Boris when he said "Nothing will change"
They also make a quick check, see its all in date and bingo! away we go, as we used to be able to do.
Were we still in the EU, this thread wouldn't exist.

I think we can all safely assume which way you voted - even if you come back and deny that lol.

[quote Louisianagumbo]@User1isnotavailable
I waited at the Liverpool passport office and went back in to collect the passport later. It wasn't posted to me.

That's now only available for adults and not for children.[/quote]
I didn't realise it had changed. That's a shame.

It's very poor form to blame Brexit when it's just poorly managed life-admin.

But this rule change is a Brexit one - no getting away from that. The passport hasn't expired and if it was an EU one then the son would be able to fly to Spain with no problem.

Where perhaps the life admin comes into it is that Brexit happened two years ago, and the Transition period ended one year ago, so people have had time to familiarise themselves with the new rules. Then with Covid restrictions not much travel was possible, otherwise this problem would have surfaced last year.

But that wasn't what was said.